Film Scenes that Stayed With me: Wild Tales

From Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes) by Damián Szifron

This scene unfolds after a bride, during her wedding party, discovers her new husband's infidelity.

After dramatically hurling her husband's secret lover into a mirror, the bride vanishes, prompting the groom to fear she might leap off the roof

What follows is a truly memorable scene, that despite its simplicity, hits like an uppercut. Let’s look more closely at why.

The scene begins from the groom's perspective (contrasting with the short film's focus on the bride's POV). We see him and his friend immediately rush to the railing, as if half expecting to find her shattered at the building's base.

Notice how the mood is established through the framing and colour palette. The cinematographer skilfully keeps the friend in subtle shadows, drawing our attention to the protagonist. Half-hidden in darkness, with just one eye visible, our hero exudes an air of gloom, amplified by the palette of black, sickly yellow, and reds.

As he turns, we're jolted by the sight of his bride with a random chef. The shot is kept ‘dirty’ meaning we see a little of the protagonist on the left. This is meant to reinforce the experience of seeing through his eyes.

The choice of a bulky, unsightly AC unit for the liaison is hilariously incongruous. The bride's elegant lingerie starkly contrasts with the setting, emphasising the sacrilegious nature of the act.

A simple yet effective technique employed throughout the scene is the presence of a third-party witness. Here, it's the groom's friend, who, despite his lack of screen time throughout the film, plays a pivotal role in this scene alone. This heightens the conflict, transforming a personal catastrophe into a public humiliation.

Despite the scene's gravity, the director skilfully incorporates distinct visual elements of farce. This approach ensures that the audience understands laughter is welcome. It's vital in comedy to convey this message clearly and early. If such cues are delayed, there's a risk of insufficient build-up, which is essential for effective humour.

Here, the filmmaker uses an absolutely obvious effect to punctuate the scene, with rumbling thunder and lightning flashes. It’s cliché, and yet, it works. It doesn’t feel cheesy, I’d even argue that the fact that it’s such an obvious trick almost feels like a quirky comment somehow.

The actress then goes in with an absolutely amazing performance. Before I go into detail about what I like about it, notice how once again a third character (the chef) is kept in the frame, adding to the visual sensation of the groom being cornered.

It doesn't stop there, and here's where it hits peak hilarity. The cook starts to flee, but the bride's outlandish threats freeze him in his tracks. He shifts from embarrassment to… pitying the groom! It's an emotional rollercoaster, and the actor nails it.

The chef is perfectly cast – just an ordinary guy who somehow ends up part of the madness and already regrets it. He knew what he was doing with the bride, but he can't help feeling sorry for the groom, which only deepens the humiliation.

After this, the bride goes into her wild monologue. The writing is great, but it’s truly the actress who carries it. She displays immense power, with her deep voice, relentless output, and crazy eyes. There is nothing for the director to do but just cut tighter and let us stare in horror.

I like how the performance is kept brisk and breathless; it’s clear the director has pushed her to go almost as fast as she could, as if, despite the length of the monologue, this is all entirely just one long sentence. One idea. It gives the sensation of a dam breaking, of a sudden tsunami ravaging everything. It completely avoids pathos.

Every once in a while, the angle changes, to show us our embarrassed chef fidgeting in the background. The many lights behind the actress, with their fiery orange colours, greatly contribute to making her look insane, almost possessed.

Also notice how ‘dirty’ this answering shot is. The bride is taking a good third of the screen on the left, which is unusual. That, plus the friend and the unusual central position of the groom, give a sense of suffocation to this shot. It’s extremely uncomfortable, and really puts us into his head.

The actress gets to tears, but there is nothing earnest about them, these are tears of rage. It’s remarkable how she manages to bring out the character’s genuine pain along with the farce. Just raw energy bombarding us.

There is no music whatsoever, just the sound of the wind, some sirens here and there adding to the realism and grounding the scene.

Once the bride is done, there is an awkward beat. The cook gets his last shot, looking straight at the groom. As if, he, just like us, is holding his breath and hoping the poor sod will be OK.

When the groom vomits, we witness the first and only camera movement in the entire scene. The camera tilts down brutally, emphasising his loss of control, like a punctuation mark.

I love this scene very much because the director does some very very simple but efficient stuff. He is focusing on the essentials, performance, mood, lighting, and cleverly uses the secondary characters to bring conflict both thematically and visually. It looks effortless and yet, it packs a big punch, it’s a rush of raw energy.

It’s very difficult to do tragicomedy. Comedy is extremely hard, mixing it with drama is amazing. This is what I aim for in my own work, the mix of comedy and drama, of absurd and emotion. A juxtaposition of tones.

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If you want to check the movie it’s called ‘Wild Tales’ (Relatos Salvajes) by Damián Szifron. It’s amazing all throughout.

Please do send me your interesting/cool scenes on Youtube. I’d love to watch them!